Dynamic digital media encoding formats, such as Audio layer 3 (MP3), associated with digital media players, such as iPods and other audio and/or video players, are rapidly surpassing their predecessor static digital media storage and playback mechanisms, i.e., CDs and DVDs, as the digital media storage and playback devices/formats of choice.
Initially, portable digital media players were largely digital audio players, more commonly referred to as MP3 players. Typically, digital audio players are consumer electronic devices that store, organize and play, as the name implies, audio files, such as songs, soundtracks, and/or the spoken word. Soon, image-viewing and/or video-playing support was added to conventional digital audio players. As a result, many currently available digital audio players are in actuality, portable multi-media players capable of processing, storing, and playing back, audio, image, and video files in one or more formats. In addition, other types of electronic devices like cell phones now include audio and video file processing, storage, playback and/or display capabilities and are therefore also portable multi-media players. Herein, the term “digital media player” includes, but is not limited to, portable and non-portable digital audio players, portable and non-portable digital video players, portable and non-portable digital multi-media players, and/or any other device or system having one or more audio and video file processing, storage and display capabilities. A more detailed discussion of some examples of digital media players is provided below.
One very attractive feature of currently available digital media players is their ability to store, and in many cases make portable, very large amounts of data. Currently, many portable digital media players provide for 160 Giga-Bytes of data, stored, and capable of being played back on, a device that fits in the user's palm and weighs only a few ounces. By way of example, 160 Giga-Bytes of audio data equates to approximately 25,000 songs or about two months of continuous playback of audio data. In addition, many portable digital media players can be interfaced with, and share content with, larger, less portable systems, such as computing systems as defined herein, that are also digital media players.
With the advent of this much data storage and playback capability, organization of the data used and/or stored by a digital media player is a major concern. To this end, many currently available digital media players use associated digital media management systems to organize audio and/or video data in various ways to provide a user friendly and comprehensible data structure. Digital media management systems are typically software applications available on the digital media player itself and/or through a web-based function.
One example of a digital media management system is iTunes which is commonly used with Apple's iPod series of digital media players.
In many instances, digital media players and/or digital media management systems use pointers/tags to indicate the beginnings and ends of songs and/or tracks. In some instances, metadata is used in place of, or in conjunction with, pointers/tags to organize individual songs and/or tracks into albums, collections, etc. In addition, many digital media players, and/or their associated digital media management systems, allow a user to organize digital data into user defined collections such as playlists. Another popular feature of many currently available digital media players is a random playback mode whereby a user can select to have their entire collection of songs/tracks, or a designated sub-set thereof, such as a playlist, played back in a random, or semi-random, order chosen by the digital media players and/or their associated digital media management systems.
Playback of digital data, and in particular, random playback, creates numerous situations where a user may wish to ensure that two or more individual tracks of digital content are always played back together and/or are played in a specific order. For example, many music tracks are intended by the artist and/or producer to be played in a specific order. A well known example would be the Beatles' songs “Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “With a Little Help from My Friends” which, on the original album, and then later on the CD, were arranged by the artist/producer to be played back-to-back. Another example would be Pink Floyd's “Brain Damage” which was intended by the artist/producer to be immediately followed by “Eclipse”. Prior to the advent of digital media and dynamic digital media formats such as MP3, these “related” data tracks were automatically, and typically unchangeably, fixed in a playback order by the static media format itself, i.e., by physical location on an album and/or audio tape. However, with currently available dynamic digital media formats used with digital media players, and/or their associated digital media management systems, there is currently no such fixed playback order and/or any static linkage of related tracks. Therefore, when tracks are played back in random play mode, there is no guarantee that the related tracks will be played back in the intended order, and more often than not, they are not played in the intended order. In addition, when one track of two related tracks intended to be played together is selected for playback, by any mechanism, the other track is typically not identified as being related to the selected track and therefore must itself be selected for playback, in the desired order, in a separate action.
On the other hand, in some cases, a user may wish to alter and/or customize the order of track playback, and/or edit digital track content. For instance a user may specifically wish to link two or more tracks that were never intended to be linked by the artist/producer, or edit out portions of a given track. In some cases, a user may even desire to link digital content of two tracks such that a specific portion/segment of a first track is linked to a specific portion/segment of another track. Currently available digital media players, portable digital media players, and their associated digital media management systems, lack this ability to link tracks, and/or segments of tracks for playback purposes, at least in any intuitive and user friendly way. Consequently, many users of digital media players are denied the capability to optimize and/or control their digital media experience.